Umwelt Is Like Absolutely Nothing You Have Ever Seen Before

Umwelt is a short film like none that you’ve ever seen before. I’m very confident in that.

Well executed timelapses have a hypnotic quality—a fluid rhythm that isn’t like anything else. Achieving that feel is not easy and takes lots of time consuming experience. There are so many variables that you can throw into the mix, none more complicated and difficult than the flower bloom timelapses.

Somehow, using post-processing techniques that I’m unable to describe, Katayama has created these bloom timelapses, all while having insects crawl on them, as if in real time. There’s absolutely nothing like it that I’ve ever seen. It’s the definition of serenity.

What makes Umwelt even more special is the second video and angle captured. The beetle climbing up the stalk of a blooming flower captures such a wide range of memories within me. Umwelt is something that’s uniquely special among timelapse photography.

Umwelt_Vertical

Umwelt

Artist Captures Insects Crawling on Flowers as They Bloom in Timelapse

Katayama no doubt relied on some creative editing or camera technique to blend these two forms of videography, but thus far he has stayed quiet about how exactly it was done. Let us know if you have any ideas.

And if you want to learn or see more, the artist created this website where you can watch a few more insect/flower pairs interact, accompanied by their scientific names.

Note: it is our policy to give credit as well as deserved traffic to our news sources – so we don't repost the entire article – sorry, I know you want the juicy bits, but I feel it is only fair that their site get the traffic and besides, you just might make a new friend and find an advertiser that has something you've never seen before

Bret Hoy is a filmmaker, photographer and writer based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Mainly focused on documentary and experimental film, he has produced, directed, shot and edited many short films and a few long form works.

Comments

Read about it on Gizmodo last week. In the comments someone mentioned the likely method was cold air and warm light. The flowers react to the light (5600K?) and the bugs are much slower with the cold air. Kinda makes sense seeing how seamless the flowers and bugs are.

Looks like he shot the insect pieces first, then the timelapse, then tracked usable sections of the insect stuff (which he may have time stretched) onto the timelapse footage. It’s a neat job but certainly not beyond a good compositor/fx person. The lighting is pretty much always a very controlled fixed set up for plant timelapse so could easily have been used for both sections. You’d need hi res, good focus, and enough time, and some experimentation before you got as good s result. I’ve worked on commercials for 20 years and though I’m not 100% certain this is how it was done, I’m pretty sure going the route I suggest could yield a fairly similar and convincing result.